It interests me that there are so many reports about pensioners or, if you’re American, seniors are the highest group of people suffering fraud, scams and hacks. What’s going on? Financial fraud and scams targeting adults over 60 have reached “epidemic proportions”, with billions lost and often many occurrences of repeat victimisation.
According to recent data, roughly 1 in 12 older people in the UK falls victim to a scam annually, while nearly 3 in 5 people over 65 have been targeted by scams, with average losses approaching £4,000 per victim.
Similarly, scams reported to the US Federal Trade Commission by adults 60 and older reached $2.4 billion in 2024, a 26.3% increase from 2023 and up 400% compared to 2020. Between 2020 and 2024, reports of seniors losing $100,000 or more increased nearly sevenfold. As a result, some estimates suggest the actual losses, including unreported cases, could be as high as $81.5 billion.
Why would so many cases be unreported?
Because pensioners are so embarrassed that they’ve been ripped off and they don’t want friends and family to know about it. In other cases, bearing in mind dementia and Alzheimer’s, many don’t report scams because they did not realise they have been defrauded.
Nearly 3 in 5 (61%) of those over 65 have been targeted by scams, and 17% have fallen victim, and the reason criminals target older adults is because that’s where the money is. For example, in the UK, it is estimated an older person becomes a victim of fraud every forty seconds.
So, what are the most common scams targeting over 60s?
Most of them are based upon social engineering, which is true of all scams (romance, help me mum/dad, etc). Scammers use psychological manipulation, particularly urgency and fear, to target older adults. Then there are the investment scams, saying here’s a great deal if you invest in this or that, often involving cryptocurrencies.
These days, as you will know from reading my blog regularly, there is a huge concern over deep fakes, particularly of celebrities endorsing cryptocurrencies – think Elon Musk and Martin Lewis – but there are a lot of others from bank officials, police, or government bodies using text messaging to dupe people.
Add to this taking over your technology. You press a button and suddenly get a message your system is vulnerable from Microsoft or Apple. Older adults are five times more likely than younger people to lose money to fake tech support scams.
What thieves don’t think about, as they have no conscience, is the damage caused by scams is more than just financial:
31% of victims over 65 report that scams have negatively affected their mental health.
12% of victims report that their physical health has worsened as a result.
4.9 million older adults in the UK fear answering their phones, and 2.8 million fear opening their doors due to scams.
So, if you have an elderly member in your family, here are the top tips to protect them from these criminals:
Do not answer unknown numbers: let calls go to voicemail;
Verify independently: if a “bank” calls, hang up and call the number on the back of your card, ideally from a different phone;
Do not use gift cards: legitimate companies will never ask for payment via gift card or cryptocurrency; and
Set up trusted contacts: financial accounts should have a trusted family member listed to check suspicious activity.
This blog entry was inspired by a reach out from Class Action U:
Click Here For The Original Source.
